This invention relates to a packet of the kind made from a blank of stiff paper or cardboard or other foldable material for the formation of front, rear, bottom and side walls folded to parallelepipedic or rectangular prismatic form to contain a contents article of block form. The contents article may comprise cigarettes or other rod-shaped units enveloped in an inner wrapper, referred to herein as a tin foil block.
The invention is envisaged as useful mostly but not exclusively in the packing of cigarettes or small cheroots or whiffs. A cigarette packet is ordinarily such that a group of cigarettes therein form a contents article of block form with the cigarettes enveloped in an inner wrapper or foil to form a tin foil block which is accommodated in the packet made of paper or pasteboard for example. In the utilization of the packet for the withdrawal of cigarettes, after the packet is first opened, the inner wrapper is partially removed so that access to the cigarettes is free.
For the handling of the packet it is advantageous if the cigarettes within the packet always have a conventional or specific position in relation to the packet opening, that is in relation to the upper edge of the packet. This is valid both for cut-type packets and for hinged-lid packets, and is very important for the convenience of regular users of such packets.
Ordinarily the construction height of the packet is adapted to the length of the cigarettes or other articles to be packed. The tin foil block abuts on the bottom wall of the packet in such a way that, by reason of a resultant conventional or specific relative position in the packet the cigarettes can easily be taken from the packet. Numerous different length cigarettes are manufactured, however. Differences in length exist for example between cigarettes with and without filters. Furthermore especially long cigarettes and cigarettes shorter than these can be found on the market. For various reasons it can however be expedient for a manufacturer or vending machine operator to use uniform packet sizes.
The invention is therefore intended to provide a packet for cigarettes for example, in which a packet contents article which is shorter in comparison with the dimensions of the packet is held in the packet in such a way that a conventional relative position between one end of the packet contents article and packet exists in the region of the opening of the packet.
According to the invention a packet is characterized in that distance pieces are arranged in the region of the bottom wall to hold or support the contents article of block form (tin foil block) at a distance from the bottomwall.
Thus a contents article having a height less than that of the packet is supported at a distance from the bottom wall in such a way that in the region of the packet opening there is a desired relative position, making possible easy access to the packet contents. The distance pieces are preferably formed integrally from the packet blank, and may conveniently be inwardly folded flaps or tabs. In the case of a packet having walls which comprise a plurality of layers in individual zones, the distance pieces can be formed advantageously by inwardly situated layers, that is, layers which are covered to the exterior.
The invention may be put into practice as explained hereinafter by reference to two examples of the preferred embodiment illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which: